Innovative Cultural Heritage of Glass

"Glassmaking communities traditionally had a close international network" the German Commission for UNESCO stated in its 2015 report giving recognition of craft glassmaking as Intangible Cultural Heritage. For the design of glass, a "complex knowledge and a solid wealth of experience" are needed, whose preservation and further development can only be realized through cross-border interactions in the future. Accordingly, the Commission is calling on the remaining knowledge carriers to "counteract the threatened disappearance of technical know-how by means of conservation measures in education and training, cooperation and network building, scientific work as well as media and museum mediation"(German UNESCO Commission).

Bild-Werk Frauenau takes this mission of the German UNESCO Commission seriously.Bild-Werk sees one of its task to promote the innovative future potentials of the cultural heritage of the glassmakers and glass craftsmen in the delivery of arts and crafts training and in the exchange of art, design and manufacturing knowledge on a regional and cross-border level.

Regional and International NetworkingBild-Werk Frauenau draws substantially from the intensive regional and international networking and cross-border orientation towards the Czech innovations area for glass and other European glass regions. It has an artistic network, which for example has more than 200 former course instructors from all over the world, as well as partner institutions of the International Studio Glass Movement and the Free Summer Schools for Glass (e.g. Pilchuck School of Glass / USA, Penland Crafts School / USA, The Glass Furnace / Turkey, and Cesty skla - Ways of Glass, Sázava / CZ).

In 30 years the Academy Bild-Werk Frauenau has offered countless participants access to a craft and artistic education and training, leading to professional self-employment in the field of glass design. In an inspirational learning atmosphere, the Academy Bild-Werk Frauenau promotes the reciprocal stimulation and experimental knowledge transfer of professionals, students for art, craft and design and motivated laypersons. As a free educational institution, the Bild-Werk Frauenau does not compete with state educational institutions; instead it complements them and, as a non-curricular educational institution, opens up perspectives and innovative open spaces beyond school contexts.

At the same time, the institution is deeply rooted in the regional glassmaking tradition of Frauenau and the Bavarian Forest. The Summer Academy Bild-Werk Frauenau emerged in 1988 from the commitment of Glashütte Eisch for studio glass and art. In addition close cooperative relationships exist e.g. with the glassworks Ajeto (Nový Bor, CZ), the glasswork Lamberts (Waldsassen) and other regional and European institutions, workshops and companies especially in the glass sector.

The objective towards networking the creative actors of the current glass scenes with all their potential for knowledge was pursued, among other things, in the organization of two international glass symposia at the Frauenau Glass Museum in 2006 and 2016.

Preservation and Further Development of the Cultural Heritage of GlassThe development of competence and networking of European glass regions and glassmakers in the fields of art, design, craftsmanship and manufacturing is also the focus of the planned pilot project "Glass Works: Training | Networking | Taking Roots". In co-operation with the Institute of Product Design of the Royal Danish Academy of Art, Glass and Ceramics Department, Bornholm, Denmark, with the Faculty of Art and Design of JE Purkine University, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, and the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology of the University of Graz , Austria, a grant application was submitted in January 2018 within the program Creative Europe: Culture of the European Union.

Here we list some of the projects Bild-Werk has carried out for the preservation and further development of the cultural heritage of glass:

Conception, co-organization and implementation the International Glass Symposia, Frauenau 1991, 1995, and 2002.

2006: Glass symposium and master classes "Glass in Context: Art - Image - Industry", conception and leading coordination in cooperation with the Association of Friends of the Glass Museum Frauenau and the community Frauenau (EU funding via Interreg III).

2012-2015 "Hot Glass Project": Construction of a hot-glass studio with two studio glass furnaces. The hot-glass studio, which was set up in co-operation with technology developers from the British Midlands glass region, aims to establish a model of energy-efficient and low-cost studio glass technology in the region (EU project in Interreg IV, with the University of West Bohemia, Faculty of Arts and Design).